Here are a few tips for subscribers and posters to help you use this discussion group well:
Your first communication with EDTECH: In your first communication with EDTECH, we would appreciate hearing about you, your interests, your work, and/or your institution.
We recommend that new subscribers read through the recent postings at this archive site or on gopher or Usenet News before posting, to get up to date with current conversations on EDTECH.
Appropriate topics: Make sure that your posting relates to the uses of technology in education. Even though other topics may by of interest to you, they may be better placed on a different list. The EDTECH Editor screens out communications not related to Educational Technology or obviously not intended or appropriate for the EDTECH list (things like "HELP" or "Harry, It's nice to hear from you again!") and handles them privately.
Mail EDTECH doesn't accept: EDTECH does not post spams, chain letters, flames, most one liners and quips, copyrighted material without approval, encoded documents, documents in languages other than English unless accompanied by a full translation, the source code for computer programs, most appeals for money, messages that say only "me too" or "thanks", anonymous mail, mail that doesn't appear to be written by the person who signed it, messages that don't seem to make sense, messages that are so badly formatted that the average person wouldn't bother to read them, and other communications that probably wouldn't enhance the quality of the discussion.
Commercial Advertising: EDTECH does not accept any commercial advertising from individuals or companies, and will not post unsolicited commercial announcements. Some informational postings about conferences or available educational resources may be accepted from known non-profit educational institutions or groups.
Reposting the same message: In general, due to high volume, EDTECH only posts a message once. If you don't get the response you had hoped, and wish to ask again, please don't just send the same message over again. Explain what result you got from your first inquiry and provide significant additional detail. Also, since many people do not read EDTECH daily, please allow a few days before assuming you didn't get a sufficient response.
Separating your EDTECH mail from your other mail: When you get mail from EDTECH it may seem with some mail programs, at first glance, that it is all coming from the EDTECH Editor (edadmin10@mail.h-net.msu.edu). This is not the case, however. The original sender is also usually named in the header, and people sign their mail in the body of their messages.
With other mail programs, such as Eudora, it appears that each piece of mail came from the individual, rather than from EDTECH. In this case, we recommend using one of the filters that come with the updated version of most mail programs to mark the EDTECH mail or send it directly to its own Inbox, so that it is easier for you to keep your list mail separate from your personal mail.
Replying to EDTECH mail: Please be careful when using the REPLY function to reply to EDTECH mail. That will generally send your reply back to the EDTECH list. Usually, to reply privately to the individual who wrote the message, you will need to address your reply specifically to that person. If it is not clear whether your message was intended for the list or not, the Editor may send you a note asking what you intended.
Signing EDTECH Postings: To make it easier for others on the EDTECH list to communicate with you directly, we require that you put a signature on your mail to EDTECH at the bottom of EVERY piece (even ones you are forwarding from other lists). The signature should include:
If you neglect to do this, the Editor may add it to your message for you or return your mail. This is necessary because the original address headers at the top are automatically stripped off by many mailers, so if your address isn't included in the body of your message, some subscribers won't know who posted it. EDTECH does not accept anonymous contributions.
Message Length: Because of the various problems inherent in sending and archiving very long messages, EDTECH prefers that you keep messages under 500 lines in length. It is often better to offer people the URL where they can find a very long document, if they are interested, than to send it to everyone.
Quoting Previous Messages: While it is sometimes important to quote a short part of a previous message that you are replying to in order to set up the context, it is not necessary to routinely quote the entirety of a previous message. If your mailer does this by default, we would appreciate your deleting the unnecessary parts of the previous message from your reply before sending. In particular, please do not include old quoted address headers that say To: EDTECH... in the body of your new message, as the listserver may reject your mail if you do.
Using the correct addresses: Please send maintenance communications/questions (eg., signoffs, procedures, archives, etc.) to LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU Please send only substantive communications regarding educational technology to EDTECH@H-NET.MSU.EDU.
USENET News Gateway: EDTECH is carried on USENET NEWS as bit.listserv.edtech. Some subscribers prefer to participate via our Newsgroup Gateway, rather than receive messages in their individual mailboxes.
Learning more about e-mail lists: If you are new to the Internet or to using e-mail lists, you might purchase one of the several currently available guides to the Internet available at your local bookstore. Check that the book includes a chapter on using LISTSERV mailing lists.